updated 10:53 am EDT, Tue May 28, 2013

European VP of LG Mobile hints at tablet investments

LG Mobile will not be working with Google to make the next Nexus device, according to comments made by the company's European Vice President. Kim Wong advised that the company does not have the rumored Nexus 5 in development, despite having officially announced a white version of the Nexus 4 earlier today.

Kim called the Nexus 4 "a great success despite the production problems for us and Google," though he also toldAll About Phones during an interview "We do not need such a marketing success again." This has been interpreted in the report as being an issue, as it prevents LG from providing its own implementation of Android to its customers, instead forced to use a stock Android install. A statement from an LG representative to clarify Kim's comments does indeed confirm that the company is not working on a Nexus 5, but "that doesn't mean we would turn down the opportunity."

Even though Samsung are releasing a version of the Galaxy S4 through Google with vanilla Android, Kim states that there are "no plans" to offer anything similar using LG's own hardware, at least not "without our own skins."

Despite the lack of a Nexus 5 from LG, it is still working on other hardware projects. Kim hints that LG is still looking towards creating a tablet, noting "The tablet market is currently fairly segmented, nevertheless we continue to invest in it."

On the subject of mobile ecosystems, Kim believes "The current duopoly of Google and Apple is not healthy for the market." This could be a taken to mean that it is trying to move away from its reliance on Android, but whether it would create its own system or not is another matter. LG has signed up as a hardware partner for Firefox OS, so that could end up being one of the directions the company may head in, though unlike Android, it is an immature platform that has not really been tested on the public.